I can say, if I like, that social insects behave like the working parts of an immense central nervous system: the termite colony is an enormous brain on millions of legs; the individual termite is a mobile neurone.
Lewis ThomasRead
It hurts the spirit, somehow, to read the word environments, when the plural means that there are so many alternatives there to be sorted through, as in a market, and voted on.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The variety of environments available can overwhelm us, creating a burden on our spirit.
In this quote, Lewis Thomas expresses the discomfort that arises from the abundance of choices presented by different environments. He suggests that having multiple alternatives to consider can be mentally taxing, as it requires us to evaluate and make decisions in a complex landscape, much like navigating a marketplace filled with options that one must sort through and vote on.
Themes
DecisionChoiceAlternativeEnvironmentSpirit
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about environmental policy, someone might quote this to emphasize the complexity of choices facing society.
More from Lewis Thomas
All quotes →I suggest that the introductory courses in science, at all levels from grade school through college, be radically revised. Leave the fundamentals, the so-called basics, aside for a while, and concentrate the attention of all students on the things that are not known.
Lewis ThomasRead
I maintain, despite the moment's evidence against the claim, that we are born and grow up with a fondness for each other, and we have genes for that. We can be talked out of it, for the genetic message is like a distant music, and some of us are hard-of-hearing. Societies are noisy affairs, drowning out the sound of ourselves and our connection.
Lewis ThomasRead
Science is founded on uncertainty. Each time we learn something new and surprising, the astonishment comes with the realization that we were wrong before.
Lewis ThomasRead
It is the very strangeness of nature that makes science engrossing. That ought to be at the center of science teaching. There are more than seven-times-seven types of ambiguity in science, awaiting analysis. The poetry of Wallace Stevens is crystal-clear alongside the genetic code.
Lewis ThomasRead
In the fields I know best, among the life sciences, it is required that the most expert and sophisticated minds be capable of changing course - often with a great lurch - every few years.
Lewis ThomasRead
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If words were invented to conceal thought, newspapers are a great improvement of a bad invention
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